With regard to renewable energy sites, Member States can qualify the soil as sealed, as soil in an area that underwent soil removal or as soil that was not sealed or as soil in an area that did not undergo soil removal, depending on the type of construction. For example, solar parks could either be considered as soil sealing or not, depending on what is done with the soil at the base of the solar panels. If the soil can still sustain an ecosystem sufficiently, then solar parks are not considered soil sealing. That assessment should be made based on the impact on the soil, regardless of the purpose or appearance of the relevant construction. Inventories of areas with such types of constructions, where information on what is done with the soil at the base of such types of constructions is available, can be intersected with remote-sensing maps of soil sealing to qualify those areas as soils that are not sealed.
Text as published in the Official Journal, reproduced verbatim (including any typographical quirks of the source). For the authentic version, see EUR-Lex.
